Background

=** Wikis are NOT Web pages or Blogs! **= In order to move towards an educational model that embraces technology and 21st Century skills integration, it is vital that leadership members become experts in the various tools and strategies. Unlike a traditional webpage, a wiki is a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content. It is similar to a blog in the way that it is a collaborative collection of ideas and sentiment.

Wikis have many similarities and differences when you compare them with blogs and traditional websites. The table below shows you a side-by-side comparison between all three. ||  Y ||  Y  || ||  Y ||  Y  || ||  Y ||  Y  || ||  Y ||  N .......... .......... ..........     || ||  Y .......... .......... ..........    ||  N  || ||  N ||  N  ||
 * ** Wikis ** || ** Blogs  ** || **  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Websites   ** ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Page(s) published on the Internet
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Individuals can create
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Means of communication
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Collaborative
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Provide a direct platform for feedback ..........
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Allow users to directly edit the content

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">
=** <span style="color: #6c132e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still looking for a deeper understanding of a wiki site? **= <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">//Wikis// are quickly becoming one of the most effective Web 2.0 tools leading the change towards this new environment for learning. Review this video made by Common Craft entitled //**Wikis in Plain English**// for a thoughtful, real life explanation of wikis. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">media type="youtube" key="-dnL00TdmLY" height="260" width="320" <span style="display: block; font-size: 130%; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: right;"> source: Common Craft. //Wikis in Plain English.// 2007. http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english. Aug. 2008

=<span style="color: #6c132e; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">How are wikis being used? = <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">When deciding to create your own wiki site, it is important to do some research. In today's on-line community, wiki sites are abundant! At times there are too many sites and very little time to sift through them all. Below is a table with different wiki samples and the function they serve. Conduct your own research!

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">OpenStreetMap creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways. ||
 * ** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Purpose & Function ** || ** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wikis site link  ** || ** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Summary  ** ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Website application  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://arborheights.wikispaces.com/  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">This school used wikis as a school website for important contact information, announcements, and fundraising events.  ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://nys-eett.wikispaces.com   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">  Our own EETT website is an example of a website application. Here we post information about meeting agendas, newsletters, EETT background information and school project details. ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Project Development  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> [|https://wiki.projectbamboo.org/display/BPUB/Working Group - Education]   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">  Project Bamboo is a group of individuals planning effective professional development opportunities for integrating technology into the arts and humanities. This wiki provides a realistic example of how to project plan collaboratively using an online application. ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://www.ikiw.org/   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">  Visit //Future Changes: Grow Your Wiki// for insightful articles about using wikis to plan projects in both the educational and business sectors. Author Stewart Mader also has a video series called [|'21 Days of Wiki Adoption'] to help guide new wiki users to success. ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Group Authoring  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">   ||   ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wikitravel is a project to create a free, complete, up-to-date, and reliable worldwide travel guide. There are 19,085 destination guides and other articles written and edited by Wikitravellers from around the globe.  ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Data Collection  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://www.sankofagen.com/   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">This website aims to summarize plantation-related data in a way that allows the genealogist to better visualize the lives of enslaved ancestors within a historical context.  ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Main_Page   ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reviews  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://caw.wikispaces.com/Course+Index  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">CAW, Course Advisor Wiki, allows students to create and edit reviews about their courses and professors.  ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://childrensbookreviews.pbwiki.com/   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">This wiki site provides detailed book reports based on children's books from picture books to young adult novels.  ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Presentations  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://theshiftedlibrarian.pbwiki.com/  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">This wiki site is based on work by <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">[|Steven M. Cohen's] <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> book and was started to post URLs from a librarians presentations about the content.  ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://couros.wikispaces.com/cyberbullying  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">This wikis site acts as a presentation board about various education topics, including cyber bullying. During the presentation, the author has the ability to access all of the resources relevant to the topic.  ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Portfolios  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://sites.google.com/a/altostrat.com/jkraus/Home   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">This site is a great example of an employee profile. The site includes a resume, press releases, as well as a picture and slide show from <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">[|Picasa web albums] <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">.  ||
 * ^  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://melzportfolio.pbwiki.com/Assessment+and+Evaluation  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">This teacher used the wiki site to show authentic examples/artifacts that give evidence of technology integration using NETS standards. Great for assessments/evaluations of teachers!  ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Encyclopedia  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://www.memoryarchive.org/en/MemoryArchive  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">An encyclopedia of memories.  ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other  || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;"> http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/WikisInTheWorkplaceBook  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">   || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif;">This website features two authors collaborating on a book to introduce wikis into the workplace.  ||